Kate Middleton May Have Called Prince William “Babe”: What Does It Mean?

The details of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s relationship—what the rapport and dynamic between the Duke and Duchess is like when they aren’t facing the public, out at official engagements, greeting the masses at royal tours, and the like—are very much a mystery, which is as it should be, given their standing. There is no Snapchatting during dinner; neither is giving interviews about how their feelings about one another have evolved over time, or anything even close to that revealing. When they so much as graze hands during a formal dinner, there are headlines for weeks. We take, essentially, whatever we can get.

This makes a certain piece of information, delivered this week via an Australian landscaper, of all people, extremely revelatory: Kate Middleton may use the affectionate nickname “babe” for Prince William. Here’s what we know: Kate and William attended the Chelsea Flower Show together on Monday. The pair were taking a look at the prize-winning garden cultivated by Charlie Albone, the aforementioned Australian landscaper (he’s also a TV host). William asked Albone about the plants, and Albone responded that they were Buxus shrubs. Now—take a deep breath, cancel your meetings for the rest of the day—at this point, Kate replied to William, per Albone’s account, “Babe, we’ve got those. We’ve got loads of those,” referring to the Buxus plants. (This isn’t particularly pertinent to our tale, but Albone actually ended up winning a silver gilt medal at the show—so it was a big day for him, what with his prize and his overhearing KATE MIDDLETON REFER TO PRINCE WILLIAM AS “BABE” and all).

Albone told his story on a British morning show, and the hosts “fell about laughing,” per the Daily Mail, with host Lisa Wilkinson asking, “Kate actually called him ‘babe,’ did she?” Albone responded, “Yeah, she actually called him ‘babe,’ and said, ‘We’ve got loads of those.’”

There is a lot to process here, to be sure. A wife calling her husband “babe” is of course not in and of itself unusual—it’s impossible to dine out in New York without overhearing a “Babe, should we split an appetizer?” at least once every 10 minutes—but it’s one of the more “normal” things we’ve heard about Kate and William’s relationship, a detail that helps you remember they are, along with everything royal and glam and otherworldly, a young couple. For a pair that is about as Larger Than Life as one could imagine, the births of their children treated as worldwide extravaganzas, it is always quite nice to remember that they are like any other husband-and-wife friends you might have, whose apartment you might cram into for a Saturday-night dinner party (O.K., not quite just like them, but you see where we are going with this). It’s possible—in this post-“babe” world—to really picture Kate and William deciding what to watch on Netflix, sharing an inside joke about how they’re never actually going to watch Bloodline even though they both “want to”; to envision Kate rolling her eyes when one of her relatives calls (“Can’t you just pick up and say I’m at . . . the doctor? Something!”); or texting each other quippy responses (“better triple the rosé count if Harry and Pippa are coming!!”). Kate calls William “babe”: we have entered a new era of royal watching.

Kate closed things out in typical (impossible-to-even-conceive-of-that’s-how-good-and-effortless-it-is) style, wearing this Naeem Khan to the Taj Mahal, for her final look of the tour.

Photo: From UK Press Pool/Getty Images.

You might think that, by the end of a very busy week-long tour, Kate would be exhausted, unenthused about getting dressed up for the cameras. But, oh no, ever the professional, the Duchess pulled off winning looks down the very end.

Photo: From Getty Images.

Only Kate Middleton could complete a three-hour hike and look completely non-fatigued afterwards. She looks fresher than most people do on the red carpet!

Photo: From Rex/Shutterstock.

The Beulah dress features Bhutan’s national flower, the poppy, and is called “Juliet” (of course she would wear a dress named “Juliet”).

Photo: By Mark Lange/Getty Images.

This was Kate’s first full-on formal outfit of the tour, a blue Jenny Packham dress for a black-tie gala, on the first night of her trip. If you were planning to go to a fancy event anytime soon and not wear an embroidered shawl, you are going to look like an out-of-touch fool, frankly.

Photo: By Chris Jackson/Getty Images.

“Oh, you wear, like, sweat clothes to do sports? I wear a cool patterned dress while playing sports, and still look immaculate.”

Photo: By Chris Jackson/Getty Images.

Try to imagine you have just flown from the U.K. to India—you’re probably jet-lagged, disoriented, otherwise exhausted. And then, at that moment, you have to get dressed up and wear something fancy and be photographed by hundreds of people. Kate manages to pull that off without breaking so much as a (metaphorical, as well as literal, probably) sweat, in this patterned, red Alexander McQueen dress.

Photo: By Mark Cuthbert/UK Press/Getty Images.

Kate closed things out in typical (impossible-to-even-conceive-of-that’s-how-good-and-effortless-it-is) style, wearing this Naeem Khan to the Taj Mahal, for her final look of the tour.

From UK Press Pool/Getty Images.

You might think that, by the end of a very busy week-long tour, Kate would be exhausted, unenthused about getting dressed up for the cameras. But, oh no, ever the professional, the Duchess pulled off winning looks down the very end.

From Getty Images.

Only Kate Middleton could complete a three-hour hike and look completely non-fatigued afterwards. She looks fresher than most people do on the red carpet!

From Rex/Shutterstock.

The Beulah dress features Bhutan’s national flower, the poppy, and is called “Juliet” (of course she would wear a dress named “Juliet”).

By Mark Lange/Getty Images.

Kate-niss Everdeen. (We’re sorry, we’re sorry, we know, we’re sorry.)

By Tim Rooke/Rex/Shutterstock.

This dress is very, very good, and are going to call the look Kaleidoscope Glam.

By Dominic Lipinski/Getty Images.

No one de-planes as glamorously as Kate Middleton. It’s not even close.

By Tim Rooke/Rex/Shutterstock.

It’s no doubt challenging to dress up to meet baby elephants and rhinos, knowing that your outfit is (we assume) at risk of being sullied or otherwise damaged. But Kate, oh singular Kate, did not seem to let it affect her styling, pulling off an A+ look in this Topshop frock.

By Chris Jackson/Getty Images.

Casual Kate! This look is very Most Sophisticated Student in Your Seminar Who Also Does Equestrian On Weekends.

From Rex/Shutterstock.

If this image—of Kate, in an Anna Sui dress, at a traditional dance performance—doesn’t cause you to break out in an immediate, full-fledged grin, well, we . . . don’t really have anything else to say to you.

By Chris Jackson/Getty Images.

Kate added what are being termed “modesty panels” to this Temperly dress, for her meeting with India’s prime minister. (Regale your friends with this fact at dinner tonight and watch them gasp at your deep-cut Kate knowledge.)

By Dominic Lipinski/Getty Images.

If you put money on a Flats – Magic Eye-style pattenred dress – Lei trio at the track this morning, you are in luck.

From A.P. Images.

For a party honoring the Queen’s 90th birthday, Kate opted for a Temperley London nude-and-black gown, which retails for about $4,500, and which we would describe as geometric-pattern chic.

By Mark Cuthbert/UK Press/Getty Images.

Kate kicked off Monday, the second day of the tour, with this white Emilia Wickstead dress, which is jaunty and bright and, just with one look at it, makes us feel like we can pretty much conquer anything.

By Dominic Lipisnki/Getty Images.

This was Kate’s first full-on formal outfit of the tour, a blue Jenny Packham dress for a black-tie gala, on the first night of her trip. If you were planning to go to a fancy event anytime soon and not wear an embroidered shawl, you are going to look like an out-of-touch fool, frankly.

By Chris Jackson/Getty Images.

“Oh, you wear, like, sweat clothes to do sports? I wear a cool patterned dress while playing sports, and still look immaculate.”

By Chris Jackson/Getty Images.

Try to imagine you have just flown from the U.K. to India—you’re probably jet-lagged, disoriented, otherwise exhausted. And then, at that moment, you have to get dressed up and wear something fancy and be photographed by hundreds of people. Kate manages to pull that off without breaking so much as a (metaphorical, as well as literal, probably) sweat, in this patterned, red Alexander McQueen dress.